Zimbabwe’s state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) said on Tuesday it had successfully partnered with private logistics companies to transport lithium concentrate by rail from the country’s southern mining region to the Port of Maputo in neighbouring Mozambique.
The move marks a significant shift for Zimbabwe’s lithium industry, which has relied largely on trucks to move the bulky mineral to export terminals, an expensive system often slowed by road congestion, border delays and rising fuel costs.
For global battery manufacturers, cheaper and more efficient logistics could improve the competitiveness of Zimbabwean lithium at a time when producers worldwide are battling weaker lithium prices and rising pressure to reduce operating costs.
The first shipment consists of 1,000 metric tonnes of lithium concentrate from Tsingshan Holding Group’s Gwanda Lithium Mine.
The cargo will travel roughly 1,000 kilometres by rail through Zimbabwe into Mozambique before reaching the Port of Maputo, one of Southern Africa’s busiest trade gateways.
The project brings together the National Railways of Zimbabwe, South African rail operator Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), a Grindrod subsidiary, and Zimbabwean logistics company Silvergill.
A solution to a costly bottleneck
Zimbabwe has rapidly emerged as one of the world’s most important lithium suppliers, but transporting the mineral has become one of the industry’s biggest operational challenges.
Most lithium concentrate has traditionally been hauled by road from mines to ports in Mozambique or South Africa, increasing costs while exposing exporters to congestion, road damage and lengthy border procedures.
The new rail option offers mining companies an alternative that could reduce freight costs while improving export reliability.
For NRZ, the project also represents another attempt to revive a railway network that has suffered decades of underinvestment.
Rail freight volumes have collapsed from around 12 million tonnes annually during the 1990s to roughly 2 million tonnes in 2025, prompting the railway operator to increasingly partner with private logistics firms to restore cargo traffic.
China’s influence grows
Zimbabwe’s lithium boom has been driven largely by Chinese investment.
Since 2021, Chinese mining companies have invested an estimated $2 billion in acquiring lithium assets and building processing facilities across the country.
Major investors include Tsingshan Holding Group, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group, Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group and Chengxin Lithium.
Those investments have transformed Zimbabwe into Africa’s largest lithium producer and one of China’s most important overseas sources of the critical mineral used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems.
According to Chinese customs data, Zimbabwe exported 1.13 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate to China in 2025, accounting for roughly 15% of China’s total lithium concentrate imports that year.
Moving beyond raw exports
The rail expansion comes as Zimbabwe continues its broader strategy of capturing more value from its mineral wealth.
In 2022, the government banned exports of raw lithium ore, requiring companies to process the mineral before shipment in a bid to encourage domestic investment and create more jobs.
Authorities have since tightened beneficiation requirements, pushing miners to produce higher-value lithium concentrates and chemical products instead of exporting unprocessed material.
The country’s long-term ambition is to become more than simply a supplier of raw materials.
Producers are increasingly investing in lithium sulphate plants, an intermediate product used to manufacture battery-grade lithium chemicals.
Industry forecasts suggest Zimbabwe could export as much as 344,000 tonnes of lithium sulphate annually by 2030, marking a significant shift towards higher-value mineral exports.
The new corridor also strengthens Mozambique’s growing importance as a gateway for Southern Africa’s mining sector.
With most Zimbabwean lithium mines located along a west-to-east transport corridor, the Port of Maputo offers producers another efficient export route to Asian markets, particularly China, where demand for battery minerals remains strong despite a slowdown in electric vehicle sales growth.
Although global lithium prices have fallen sharply from their 2022 highs following a surge in new supply, producers are increasingly looking for efficiencies rather than expansion alone.
For Zimbabwe, improving rail logistics may prove just as important as discovering new lithium deposits.
Reducing transport costs, improving export reliability and supporting local processing could help Africa’s biggest lithium producer remain competitive as the global battery minerals market enters a more mature and cost-conscious phase.
